SP app to teach young Samajwadis about Lohia

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party will repackage Ram Manohar Lohia digitally for the GenNext’s consumption. Making the announcement on the 105th birth anniversary of the socialist leader, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he would soon launch a web application, of the kind used by news agencies, through which the Samajwadi Party (SP) would disseminate information about Lohia’s ideas. The same platform, he said, would also serve to inform the masses, especially the youth, about development initiatives launched by the SP government.
Switching to poll mode ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, Akhilesh said on Monday the youth workers of the party needed to learn bout Lohia with the same fervour they used to raise slogans. “In the next elections, the youth members will play a crucial role in returning SP to power. It is important that we reach out to more and more people and inform them about the state government’s affirmative actions in areas like roads, energy, education as well as employment opportunities,” he said.
Launching his book ‘Dr Lohia Aur Unka Samajwad’, on Lohia’s life and ideology, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said Lohia had led an inspirational life. Commenting on how the Congress co-opted Gandhi as its own to further its rule over India, and reduced him to being remembered on his birth and death anniversaries, Ram Gopal said, “Lohia’s contribution to breaking down the caste system was tremendous. His message of socialism has grass root connect. And Mulayam Singh Yadav has taken it further, to the people of the country. Lohia shouldn’t just be remembered, Samajwadi workers should soak in his ideology.”
On Monday, the chief minister also unveiled an e-book on the socialist icon -- ‘Lohia, Mulayam Va Samajwad’ -- and a new website, through which the SP hopes to get Lohia’s message to more and more people across the state and outside. Speaking at the event, Governor Ram Naik called Lohia the “architect of opposition unity”. “Lohia was a multi-faceted personality. I have a long association with him; he contested the by-election from Goregaon in Mumbai in 1963. He had the special capability of taking the opposition along,” Naik said.
Apart from launching Ram Gopal’s book, Akhilesh also released a compendium of the state government’s achievements in the three years of being in power. Called “Poore Ho Gaye Vaade, Ab Naye Iraade,” (Promises fulfilled, now to setting new targets), the government has listed its achievements. Among others, the list lays emphasis on SP government’s Lucknow-Agra green field expressway, the construction of additional sub-stations for better power supply by 2016, and free access to education and health facilities for the people of UP.